Remarks by President Trump on Tax Reform

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I love the state of Ohio. What great memories. (Applause.) And we’re starting to boom, you know that.

It’s great to be back in Ohio, and be here with the hardworking men and women of Sheffer Corporation. Congratulations. (Applause.)

We have a lot of great people with us today. We have our Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin. (Applause.)

A man that you know very well and has done an amazing job and a great job in helping us with the massive tax cuts that are helping everybody so much. And everyone has fallen in love with it. I’ll tell you, Rob Portman, he knows his stuff. Thank you, Rob. Thank you. (Applause.)

A terrific guy, a friend of mine from day one, and he’s been behind me from day one, Jim Renacci. Jim. Jim, thank you. Jim has been a great friend of mine. (Applause.)

And another great friend of ours, Brad Wenstrup, couldn’t be here. He’s — Army Reserve duty. That’s okay, right? That’s a good excuse. That’s the only excuse we’d accept. Great guy. (Applause.)

I want to thank you all, and I want to thank Jeff Norris and everyone here at Sheffer Corporation for hosting us at this really incredible facility. We just toured it. I love equipment. (Laughter.) And I love workers. You have them both. But it’s really something. Wonderful place.

I’m here in the beautiful Cincinnati. I’ll tell you, you know I was here — I worked here for a long time. People don’t know; most people don’t know. Swifton Village, long time ago. Really? Oh, you know Swifton.

Came here a long time ago. I had a great success with my father. I was a young success. And, you know, if I didn’t have a success, maybe I would have gone and just done something else. Who knows? But I spent a lot of time in this state and a lot of time in Cincinnati, and I love it.

And what I really want to do — and come here and give something very big back. And that’s tax cuts, I signed into law. Your paychecks are going way up. (Applause.) Your taxes are going way down. And right now, for the first time in a long time — and you’ve seen it — factories are coming back. Everything is coming back. They all want to be where the action is. America is once again open for business. Right? (Applause.)

We’ve already created nearly 2.6 million jobs since the election, including more than 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing. We love manufacturing. (Applause.) Those are real jobs, not the other kind where they talk but there’s nothing there.

We’re bringing back those four magnificent words: “Made in the USA.” (Applause.) We’ll count “USA” as one word. Is that okay? (Laughter.) I just said — have to think about that one. (Laughter.)

Unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low. Think of that. I mean, just think of that. (Applause.)

And something that I’ve been talking about for two years — campaigning, and everyone said, you’ll never do it. After years of wage stagnation, wages — you saw what happened two days ago and a month ago — wages are now, for the first time in many years, rising. (Applause.)

In fact, more companies are pursuing pay increases right now than at any time in the last long period of time — they actually say, in the 21st century. Can you imagine that? It’s amazing what people with some good ideas can do. It’s amazing what we’ve done together.

This has been an incredible journey, but it’s happening even faster. And wait until you see GDP over the next year or two. Wait until you see what happens to our country. Because people can feel it. Billions and billions of dollars are being poured back into the United States.

At the center of America’s resurgence are the massive tax cuts that we just passed before Christmas. Remember two things. Number one, I said, “We’re going to be saying ‘Christmas’ again.” And, number two, I said I was going to give you a Christmas present. (Laughter and applause.)

And I don’t know if you remember, I was going to sign it around January 5th. And then I heard one of the hating groups on television: “He promised a Christmas present.”

Now, here’s a thing that hasn’t been done in a long time, many years — really never done to this extent. You include ANWR, which is tremendous energy potential. And you include getting rid of our individual mandate — the worst thing there is in Obamacare, which really leads to the repeal of Obamacare.

When you look at those things — I mean, there hasn’t been anything. But I said, I want to give them a great Christmas present.

So January 5th — so I heard them say, “He didn’t make it with the Christmas present.” So I said, “You know what? Move that bill up a few days. We’ll move.” And it was rather inconvenient for a lot of people. I said, “We have to sign it.” So we signed it just before Christmas. Better, right? (Applause.) Better.

Otherwise I would have been hearing — Rob — “He did not fulfill his campaign obligation or promise”. Right? So now they can’t say it. Just one more thing we check off the list.

But it is the biggest tax cut and reform in American history. And at the heart of our plan is tremendous relief for working families and for small businesses.

A typical family of four, earning $75,000, will see an income tax cut of more than $2,000 a year — and you’re already seeing it — slashing their income tax bill in half. (Applause.)

We nearly doubled the standard deduction, meaning the first $24,000 dollars earned by a married couple will be 100 percent tax-free. Not bad. (Applause.)

And we have doubled the child tax credit. That was compliments very much of Ivanka Trump. She would press us. Right, Rob? (Applause.) She would press us. Pretty amazing. But we got it done. Not easy.

And we had, by the way, we had no Democrats. We had nobody. Not one. Including your other Senator, who voted against it. No, he voted against it.

I don’t care — Republican, Democrat — they voted against it. And if they ever got in, and if they ever took over, your taxes would go way up and you’d see some bad things happening. So, wouldn’t be good. That I can tell you. Would not be good.

When I signed the tax cuts six weeks ago, it set off a tidal wave of good news that continues to grow every single day. Before the ink was dry, companies were announcing thousands and thousands of new jobs and enormous investments to their workers.

Apple announced a $350 billion investment in America. And when I heard it, I said, “No, no. They mean $350 million.” Because I’ve been saying to the head of Apple — good guy, Tim Cook — from the beginning — as soon as I first met him, I said, “Tim, it’s not complete until you start building plants in our great states. Otherwise, when you build them where you’re building them, I’m not interested. You got to build them.”

And believe me, the reason it’s happening is because of what we did. But I heard the number. I heard “350,” and I figured it was $350 million. That’s a big plant. You know, $350 [million] is big. Even for your great company, it’s big. (Laughter.)

So I figured they’re going to build a big, beautiful plant someplace. Then they came to me. They said, “Sir, it’s not $350 million. It’s $350 billion.” Right? (Applause.) That’s a big number. I would have been happy with the $350 million, but you know, I like this number slightly better.

Mobil just announced a fantastic $50 billion investment, if you look at that. Exxon Mobil. Fantastic.

Fiat Chrysler announced 2,500 jobs are coming back to Detroit — to Motor City. Two thousand five hundred. And do you know where they’re coming from? (Applause). Mexico. (Applause.) No, think of it.

Nothing against Mexico. We are re-negotiating NAFTA, I can tell you that. We are renegotiating. (Applause.) I’ve been telling you that for a long time. I’ve been — either you renegotiate or you terminate. But we’re renegotiating. We’ll see what happens.

But Chrysler, leaving Mexico, coming back to Motor City with a massive plant. I mean, you haven’t heard that in — how many years would you say, Rob? Thirty? Twenty-five?

We’re reversing it. And many other companies are coming back and many other car companies are coming back. And a lot of them, which is of most interest to you, are coming back to Ohio. (Applause.) They’re coming back here. Right here.

And right here in Cincinnati, on this very beautiful factory floor, the Sheffer Corporation announced that every single worker was getting a $1,000 tax cut bonus. You are so generous. Thank you. (Applause.) Congratulations, everybody. That’s good. That’s good.

Hardworking, patriotic Americans like you are what make this country run, and run like no other. But we took away all of that pride and all of that incentive and we’re losing so many of our companies and we’re losing so many jobs.

And how long have I been talking about this? Ten, fifteen, twenty years, I’ve been talking. You know, some of you have heard me saying this as a private businessperson — “We’re losing all our jobs. We’re losing our companies.” They’re coming back.

It’s your grit, it’s your pride, and your determination to do the job right. It’s the foundation of American strength and the key to America’s future.

But you know, you can work hard, but if you don’t have the right leader setting the right tone — in all fairness, I’m not even saying — I am non-braggadocios. (Laughter) But if I don’t set a tone like, “You’re not going to keep taking our jobs.” You’re not going to keep doing what you’re doing.”

And wait until you see what’s happening over the next two or three months with what we’re doing to countries that have treated us so unfairly. In many cases, so-called “friendly countries.” I don’t call them “friendly.” I don’t call them “friendly.”

But it’s all changing and those companies are coming back and those jobs are coming back.

So you are among more than 3 million Americans who have received a tax cut bonus because of the tax cuts that we just signed into law.

Everywhere I go, I love to hear what people plan to do with the money. So, I thought we could take a few minutes to hear from some of your coworkers. You know who I’m talking about, right? I assume you like these people. (Laughter.) I assume it’s central casting. Right, boss?

Tyler Berkshire — do you know him — joined Sheffer Corporation through an apprenticeship — come on up here, Tyler — six years ago. And now he is a machinist, and a talented one. (Applause.) They like him, okay.

Nice to be loved. It’s nice to be loved. I figured they would only send popular ones up here, you know. (Laughter.) The unpopular ones — don’t’ worry, you don’t have to worry about. (Laughter.)

In addition to his $1,000 bonus, his paychecks are bigger because he’s paying less taxes. Tyler, you’re up here. I’m going to give you a chance — like, maybe 30 seconds or less — (laughter) — to explain what you’re going to do with all that extra money. In this case, over $1,000. (Applause.)

MR. BERKSHIRE: Thank you, Mr. President. And with the tax cut and the bonus, I will be trying to save up money to start a family and eventually get a bigger house. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I like that idea. That’s good. (Applause.)

MR. BERKSHIRE: And I appreciate all your hard work that you’ve been putting in, and all your — Rob Portman, and everybody else. So I just want to say thank you.

That’s a good guy there, Jim. I think he’ll probably be very supportive of you. (Laughter.) I think everybody is going to be supportive. We need people that are going to do a great job and keep us in the right direction. (Applause.) You know, we need them badly too. Or it all goes back to where it was and worse.

Oh, but did we catch them in the act, or what? You know what I’m talking — (laughter) — oh, did we catch them in the act? They are very embarrassed. They never thought they were going to get caught. We caught them. Hey, we caught them. It’s so much fun. We’re like the great sleuth. (Laughter.)

Deana Spoleti is also with us. Where’s Deana? She joined Sheffer — come on up, Deana — in 2012 as a customer service rep, and has climbed her way all the way up to become a manager. (Applause.)

Deana is looking at a tax cut of $1,500 and that is on top of her $1,000 that Sheffer is already giving her. So that’s $2,500-plus. What are you going to do with that money Deana? How are you?

MS. SPOLETI: I’m good, thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

MS. SPOLETI: Thank you for being here.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you, Deana.

MS. SPOLETI: When they asked me what this would mean to my family, really what it means to my family is the same that it means to all hardworking American families right now who are reaping the benefits of your tax cuts. It means that we’ll have money in the bank, more money to make ends meet.

Personally, for my family, my husband Tim and I are in the process of buying a home. And in the fall, both of kids, Katie and Matthew, will be going to college. So we’ll be using that money. That will be like a bonus we receive — thank you, Sheffer — a one-time bonus, but it will be an ongoing bonus in our paycheck every week. And it will just help us make ends meet. So thank you very much.

THE PRESIDENT: Wow. Great job. Thank you. (Applause.) Beautiful.

Oh, I’m glad she’s not running against you, Jim. That’s very good. Thank you very much. She’s doing a great job?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Good.

Like Tyler and Deana, millions of workers are thrilled to have more money to save for their children’s college, or to fix their home, or put aside money for a rainy day.

But believe it or not, Nancy Pelosi and those in Congress who want to raise your taxes —

AUDIENCE: Booo —

THE PRESIDENT: They want to raise your taxes. They don’t want to give the money to the military, where we need it. You know, without the military, we might not be here, or we might not be here for long, believe me. (Applause.) Believe us all.

Nancy Pelosi — what she’s doing to this country. And she’s gone so far left, and Schumer has gone so far left. Oh, I look forward to running against them. (Laughter.)

We’ve got to do well in ’18, and I know we’re going to do great in ’20. But I think we’re going to do well in ’18. I think we’re going to do well in ’18. I think we’re going to do very well. (Applause.) They have gone left. They want to raise your taxes.

You know, I figure we’re safe. Historically, when you win the presidency — you know the story. Just, for whatever reason it is — and I think I figured it out. Nobody, really, has been able to explain it properly. I think I figured it — the party wins the presidency. And now the people are happy and you see tax cuts, in this case, or whatever that party is — but you see the big tax cuts, you see what we’re doing, jobs are coming back.

And the people that voted for us become complacent a little bit. They’re happy. And it’s only two years — between ’16 and ’20 — and so it’s two years. So it’s a short time.

So the people are happy. And they don’t get out, and they don’t vote like they should. Maybe they go to a movie in ’18. None of you are going to a movie, I hope. Right?

So what happens is, they sort of take it for granted. They sit back. And then they get clobbered because the other people are desperate. And they get out and they have more energy.

But I think, because of what we’ve done, because of the tremendous success we’ve had, I have a feeling that we’re going to do incredibly well in ’18.

And I have to say this: History is not on our side. But it’s not because of that word, “complacency.” You win the presidency and you take it easy, and then they come and surprise you in the midterms. They call them the “midterms.”

We’ve got to get out there and win or they’re going to take — and I say it — a Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer. They want to raise your taxes.

They don’t want to give the money to the military, which we have to. Because our military, because of Obama and even beyond Obama — it’s depleted. It’s in bad shape. And we’re going to build it stronger than it ever was before. We’ve already started. We’ve already started. (Applause.)

So that’s what happened. And that’s happens in midterms. But we’re not going to let it happen to us. I mean, it’s — traditionally, that’s what goes on.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: They never met Donald Trump.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I love that person. Whoever — where is he? (Laughter.) I love him. I knew I liked that man. I saw him standing — thank you. (Applause.)

But we’re going to be in there fighting because we don’t want that tradition to go. We want to have tremendous success. We want to get Jim in, and we want to get a lot of other people in. But we have to have to have tremendous — we have to have tremendous success.

And if we don’t, we’re just foolish. We can’t — I know we’re going to do great in ’20 because, by that time — see, what happens is, if you did badly ’18, now you’re all angry again and you’re going — and now, ’20 comes along. But we want to do great in ’18. And we’re going to do really well in ’20. That’s when we go again, and we keep this great journey going, okay? (Applause.)

So start thinking about ’18, start thinking about November, start finding out exactly that little slot. You’re not going to a restaurant — although you could. You could go and vote, and go to a restaurant. But that’s what happens, and we’re not going to let that happen to us.

In addition to the bonuses created by our tax cuts, economists estimate that our business tax cut will raise the income of a typical family by an average of $4,000. (Applause.)

So Nancy Pelosi, again, said that’s “crumbs.” Well, she’s a rich woman who lives in a big, beautiful house in California who wants to give all of your money away. And she talked about crumbs.

And I really think her statement about crumbs — because you’re getting thousands and thousands of dollars, and you’re getting it every year. So I think her statement “crumbs” will be equivalent — and I said this the other day for the first time. When I first heard the word “deplorable” — (laughter) — I thought it was a bad thing, but I had no idea it was not going to be good for our opponent.

It was not good because about two days after she said it, I go to a rally. And everyone is wearing shirts, “I am a deplorable.” “We’re all deplorables.” (Applause.) I said, what’s going on with the word “deplorable,” Rob. You know, we had that, right? It just went pretty wild. It was not a good day for her.

And I think this is not a good day for Nancy Pelosi. She’s our secret weapon. (Laughter.) No, she’s our secret — I just hope they don’t change her. There are a lot of people that want to run her out. She’s really out there. And I’m supposed to make a deal with her?

But you know, the other day — did anybody happen to see the State of the Union Address? Right? Okay. (Applause.) So I got good marks.

But I said, we have the lowest black unemployment in the history of our country. It was like — it was a game. You know, they play games. They were told, “Don’t even make a facial movement.” And I’m talking about, you have the lowest Hispanic unemployment in the history of our country. This isn’t me saying — this is the charts, the polls. We have the lowest in the history of our country. Dead silence. Not a smile.

In fact, there was one guy — when I said, the lowest African American unemployment, he was sort of clapping like — who was that guy? He was a nice guy. I think he was a reverend. And he was clapping. And I wouldn’t say it was exactly a rousing — but he was putting his hands together. And I want to find out who he is. I’m going to send him a letter of thank you. And he was probably severely reprimanded. Don’t you think, Rob? I think so — because he was the only one.

So that means they would rather see Trump do badly, okay, than our country do well. That’s what it means. It’s very selfish. And it got to a point where I really didn’t even want to look too much during the speech over to that side. Because, honestly, it was bad energy. That was bad energy.

You’re up there, you’ve got half the room going totally crazy, wild — they loved everything, they want to do something great for our country. And you have the other side, even on positive news — really positive news, like that — they were like death and un-American. Un-American.

Somebody said, “treasonous.” I mean, yeah, I guess, why not? (Laughter.) Can we call that treason? Why not? (Applause.) I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.

But you look at that, and it’s really very, very sad. So we have to keep it going because this country is turning, and it’s turning much faster. And I said I’m going to do it, but it’s happening faster than I thought.

And a big part of it is the fact that the companies kicked in because nobody saw that. AT&T came in, another one came in, another one — Comcast.

So many companies kicked in — hundreds. Now it’s going to end up being thousands of companies. This company, too. It’s a little smaller than AT&T, but we’ll take it. (Laughter.) For the people in this room, it’s much more important than AT&T. Right? (Applause.)

But great companies like this — many companies. And that’s — honestly, we said, come February 1st, nobody is going to beat it because you’re going to get your checks and you’re going to see you have more money. Because they’re taking a lot less taxes out of your check. And I just don’t think that anybody can beat it.

And Senator Brown voted against us, and fought us like crazy. Okay? Just remember that. He voted against you. Just — when you go in there, he voted against you. Not good. Not good.

So we’ve gone from being one of the highest-taxed countries anywhere in the world to being one of the most competitive because when our workers have a level playing field, which they didn’t have, they can compete and win against anyone in the world.

And that goes for our companies. But we were forcing our companies out. Now we’re bringing our companies back in. And if they don’t want to come in, that’s okay. But they’re not going to be so happy, believe me. And I told you that a long time ago. It’s not like the old days.

And when our workers win, who really wins? Our country wins because we’re all in this together. We’re one team, one people, and one family. And we’re saluting one great American flag, and everybody stood up yesterday. There was nobody kneeling at the beginning of the Super Bowl. (Applause.) We’ve made a lot of improvement, haven’t we? That’s a big improvement. (Applause.)

And on top of that, it was a good game. So a lot of good things happened. But there was no kneeling before that Super Bowl.

Today, we’re thrilled to be joined by several business leaders who understand just how true all of the things that we’re saying are. We’re also thrilled to have a lot of the fake news media in the back. Those cameras are rolling. Hi, folks. (Laughter.) That’s what good about doing it live. They can’t cut you. (Applause.) You know, when you do a tape, you end up saying, “Well, wait a minute. What happened to the four sentences that they cut out? Where are those four sentences?”

I want to start with a man I watched today on Fox, and he was terrific — Jeff Norris. Jeff, come on up. (Applause.) We know Jeff. So we know every employee has already received a $1,000 bonus, and they’ve gotten a lot of tax — really lower tax — so they’re doing a lot better. But Jeff, why don’t you tell us a little bit more about your plans for the future of the company, and also what you have in mind for the money, which is going to be a lot, that you save on taxes.

MR. NORRIS: Thank you. Well, first of all, welcome everybody here. And it’s such a blessing to have you here, President Trump. In all my years, you pray for a President like this that will take care of the working class and businesses, and we finally have one here. And I’ll talk about my stuff in a little bit — (laughter) — but we need to make sure that we support President Trump, especially in 2018. (Applause.)

And we need to vote out people that are an obstacle to him. In manufacturing, our job is to remove obstacles. This man can remove obstacles, and we need to clear the path for him. (Applause.)

What we plan on doing with the tax savings: invest it in our people, our processes, and our equipment, and continue to try to make America great again. And like you said before, we’ve got the greatest workforce in the world, we just need a level playing field just a little closer. It doesn’t have to be there; just a little closer because our people can do it. And I’m just proud to have you as our President. And I wish you the best, and God bless you.

Thank you, Mr. Trump.

THE PRESIDENT: You’ve been doing such a good job. I want to thank you for doing such a great job, too. Thank you.

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: That’s what it’s all about. That’s true.

Greg Carmichael is the CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp — big bank — which is headquartered right here in Cincinnati. Greg, please step up. Tell us what you’re doing, with respect to all of those incredible workers. You have 14,000 of your employees, and you’re doing something very special for them, so I’d like to hear it. Thank you, Greg. (Applause.)

MR. CARMICHAEL: Mr. President, thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done for our nation. And we thank you for your efforts and your leadership in bringing tax reform to America.

At Fifth Third Bank, we’re already feeling the effects of the tax benefit, and we’re working to pass those benefits onto our employees.

Immediately upon the announcement of the passing of the legislation, Fifth Third Bank announced an investment in our employees that included raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and providing a $1,000 bonus for over 13,500 of our valuable employees. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: That’s good. That’s fantastic.

MR. CARMICHAEL: We’re investing in our employees because of the contribution they make to our bank, to their families, and the communities in which they serve.

THE PRESIDENT: Fantastic. Thank you. It’s a great bank, too. Thank you very much.

That’s a lot of employees — 14,000. Big bank, great bank.

Matt Schron is general manager at Jergens Incorporated, a manufacturing company founded by his family 75 years ago in Cleveland. You must be very rich. (Laughter.) Matt, why don’t you come on up and tell us about these massive cuts and how they’re benefitting your people, your employees, your workers. Thanks, Matt. (Applause.)

MR. SCHRON: Mr. Trump, thank you very much for your leadership on this tax reform. I’m honored to be here today representing Jergens and the manufacturing community. Jergens was founded in 1914 during World War II, manufacturing airplane seat components. Today, we’re a worldwide leader in workholding, fixturing, and specialty fasteners.

Last year was a record year for Jergens. And thanks to your tax cuts, we see continued success in the future. Jergens is going to be using your tax breaks to invest in our greatest asset: our employees.

In April, during our annual performance reviews, we’re going to be doubling the annual rate increases that we will be providing our employees. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Wow.

MR. SCHRON: In addition, we’re going to be using your tax break to invest in capital for our machine shop, and also research and development for our company, which will help us to hire more people in the future.

So, Mr. Trump, your tax break has three benefits: one, more money for our employees; two, we’re going to have more equipment for our facility; and three, we’re going to be able to hire more people.

Mr. Trump, thank you very much for your leadership in the tax reform.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Matt. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Great job. Great company. Great company. Thank you very much. Great job you’ve done.

Finally, Chris Irion is the CEO of e-Cycle, an environmental services company in Columbus that recycles and resells smartphones. Let’s see, you recycle smartphones. Think about that one. (Laughter.) What about when they smash those phones with a hammer? (Laughter.) Can you bring them back to life? Oh, what you would find. Oh, can you imagine that, Rob, what we would find? Do most people, when they toss a phone, do they smash them with a hammer? No? Not too many.

Well, if you could recycle them, I’m with you all the way, Chris. (Laughter.) I just saw that, I said, “Boy, this is exciting.” Could be the most exciting part of this visit. (Laughter.)

Come on up, Chris. I understand that you have a big announcement to make. Let’s give us the news. Thank you.

MR. IRION: Thank you, Mr. President. I’m pleased to announce that e-Cycle paid out our largest bonus in company history this past Friday. One-hundred percent of all of our hourly and salaried employees participated in this bonus program of over $350,000. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Great.

MR. IRION: In addition, due to the greatest tax reform package just passed in U.S. history, we’re celebrating with an additional $1,000 tax reform bonus for all of our 55 employees. (Applause.)

For all the e-Cycle team members watching right now, thank you for everything that you do.

Thank you again, Mr. President, for believing in the American worker and the American Dream. You just made America great again.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, Chris.

And thank you all for investing in our great American workers and our great American companies. Every job you create makes our country stronger and the future of our country brighter.

Jobs are about more than paychecks. Good jobs are the cornerstone of a safe and a strong and a proud America. There is nothing more important than the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes at the end of a hard day’s work. And all of us — me, you, all of us in this room — we know that feeling. Just about every day, we know that feeling.

That’s why we want every American to know the dignity of work, the pride of a paycheck, and the satisfaction of the statement, “Job well done.” (Applause.)

Creating good jobs is also an important part of fighting the drug epidemic that has affected millions of Americans, bringing new hope to struggling communities. And it’s gotten to a point where it’s never been worse.

People form blue ribbon committees, they do everything they can. And, frankly, I have a different take on it. My take is, you have to get really, really tough — really mean — with the drug pushers and the drug dealers. We can do all the blue ribbon committees we want. (Applause.) We have to get a lot tougher than we are. And we have to stop drugs from pouring across our border.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: You got to build that wall.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, we’re building the wall. Believe me. We’re building the wall. Don’t even think about it. (Applause.)

Somebody said, the other day, “Well, he really didn’t want to build the wall. He was just using that –” We’re building the wall, or a lot of other things aren’t going to happen. (Applause.)

And the ones that don’t want security at the southern border or any other border, are the Democrats. They don’t care about the security of our country. They don’t care about MS-13 killers pouring into our country. And we bring them out almost as fast as they come in. But nobody was bringing them out before us. And these are killers.

But our guys are tougher than them, and that’s what we need. Sorry. (Applause.)

And our Democrats ought to get smart, and they ought to get tough, or the situation is going to get very bad. But we’re going to win.

As we speak, our wonderful First Lady is visiting Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, hearing directly from doctors about their incredible work treating beautiful, precious, little babies who are born addicted to opioids, and how government can help them save lives.

And, actually, Mrs. Portman is with Melania right now. They’re together. Your wife, I hear, does an incredible job with the hospital. So thank you, Rob, very much. Appreciate it. (Applause.)

America will not overcome this epidemic overnight. But just like Americans always will — I do think we have to change our ways, and we will — but we will prevail. We’re going to beat it. We’re going to get tough, we’re going to get angry, and we’re going to win.

Our children are being decimated. You know, one drug dealer can kill thousands of people. One drug dealer. If you ever did an average — nobody has ever seen this, you’ve probably never heard this before — but if you ever did an average, a drug dealer will kill thousands of people. And we don’t even come down on these people. So it’s time to start, and that time is now. Right now. (Applause.)

We want every American to live a life of meaning, of purpose, and of joy. And we want every American to have a job they love so they can wake up each morning excited to go to work, like all of you people are. Right? You’re excited. You love it — thinking about where I’m going to put that next big, beautiful machine. One-year expensing. (Laughter.) You buy the machine now, one-year expensing.

That will be one of the biggest things — nobody even talks about it — in our tax cut plan. Right? The one-year expensing. Nobody thought they’d ever see that in this country, and I think that’s going to have a great incentive. I think that’s going to have a tremendous incentive. (Applause.)

They don’t talk about that one, and — you know, people don’t talk about that. Most people don’t know what it means, but some of the people in this room do. It’s the one-year expensing. You watch. That’s going to have a big impact.

That’s why our tax bill also creates new opportunity zones rewarding those who invest in distressed communities and create more jobs for those who have, too often, simply been left behind.

Workers will not only make more money because of our tax cuts. Starting this month, you will keep that money in your pocket, in your bank, or you may want to buy something. But you’re going to keep the money that you earned. You’re going to spend it. The government won’t be spending it for you. Something really nice about that. (Applause.)

Families in the great state of Ohio — remember, for two years, you heard, “Donald Trump has to go through Ohio.” I said, I love Ohio. I worked here. I was here. I lived here. I mean, it was great.

But they said, “Donald Trump has to go through Ohio.” And did we ever go through Ohio. Right? (Applause.) We went through Ohio.

And now it’s much better than even Election Day. I saw that — they just showed that to me inside. Much better than even Election Day. And we did well on Election Day. That was about one minute after the polls closed. “Donald Trump has won the state of Ohio.” That wasn’t too close, right? (Applause.)

We’re going better now because — you know what? Now, we’re producing. Before it was talk. See, before it was talk. It was like the State of the Union. Now, they thought I gave a State of the Union last year that was really good. They didn’t call it the State of the Union because you weren’t there for a year. But it was nevertheless, sort of, the same thing. They thought it was very good.

But they said, this was one better because last time was aspirational. I said, “We’re going to get this, we’re going to get that.” And we’ve actually produced much more than I said I was going to produce. When’s the last time you heard that?

With judges; with the Supreme Court Justice, Gorsuch, who is great; with so many different things. (Applause.) And then, of course, topped off by the tremendous tax cuts and the individual mandate, and all of the different things we’ve done — ANWR. So many different things.

And, by the way, the big thing that nobody talks about that you would be talking about: regulation. We’ve cut regulation. I actually think — I’m here to talk about tax cuts — but I actually think that cutting regulation has more of an impact, or as much. We have cut more regulation in one year than any President has cut in four, eight, or, in one case, sixteen years. More. (Applause.)

And we have a ways to go. We haven’t finished. We’re probably 47, 48 percent of the way there. We have a ways to go. Some of it’s statutory. You can only go so fast. You have to do this, and then wait 90 days. Do this, and wait 120 days. But all those clocks are ticking.

Families in Ohio will see a tax cut of more $8 billion this year — $8 billion. That’s good. That’s good. (Applause.)

And even more good news. Major electric and gas companies are lowering your utility prices and your utility bills because of tax reform, which is a big win not only for families, but a really big win, when you think of it, for the manufacturers. For places like this.

The energy costs are going down. Like, other countries — they’re going up. You know why ours are going down, right? Because I believe in a lot of good, clean, but old-fashioned stuff that really works and really has power behind it. (Applause.)

There’s never been a better time to hire in America, to invest in America, and to start living the American Dream. There’s never been a better time than this. Because the future of America doesn’t belong to the privileged few, it belongs to all of the people — all of those people that I saw for two years now.

It belongs to those people. The forgotten man and women. They worked hard. They paid taxes. They worked hard. They paid taxes. That’s what they did. They worked; they worked; they worked. They paid; they paid; they paid. And then they were forgotten by the politicians. You’re not forgotten anymore. You’re not forgotten anymore. And that’s what happened on November 8th, they weren’t forgotten. (Applause.)

Now the Democrats are trying to figure, “Let’s see. You know we forgot about those people for about 100 years. How do you get them back into the fold?” It’s not going to be so easy for them because you’re going to remember. It belongs to the hardworking men and women who play by the rules, follow our laws, and give their best, and who never, ever, give up.

The fact is, the future belongs to you. You are the ones who raise America’s great and beautiful families, support America’s communities, and uphold our values, our principles, and the American way of life.

Workers like you carve the steel into our skyscrapers — and I just got to see a lot of it — by great machinists, by great mechanics, by great people. You build the machines that power our cities and teach the next generation of children what it means to be a proud American.

You are the ones who are shaping our destiny. You are the ones who are restoring our prosperity. And you are the ones who are making America great again. (Applause.)

We love you, Ohio. God bless you. I will see you soon. We’ll be back.

Jim, get in there and fight. Get in there and fight. We need you. We need you.